The Legend Of Zelda: Hyrules Nightmare
by herooftime99
Summary: After Ganondorf was defeated, Link was sent back in time 7 years, to relive the years that he's missed. During that time, a new evil has risen, one that will not stand down easily.
1. Prologue

**The Legend Of Zelda: Hyrules Nightmare**

**AN:**** This is my first fanfiction, so please be kind. I would appreciate some feedback, and if there is anything I could do to improve this, then please do not hesitate to tell me. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this, and I'm sorry for any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes, and if the story is rubbish. And I apologise for the lack of originality for the names.**

**Prologue**

Our story begins in the land of Hyrule, deep in the Gerudo desert. A gerudo woman, called Reana, was on lookout on top of the tall post, which guarded the small Gerudo village. She was just lazily searching around, for any sign of movement in the nearby desert, when she spotted a man, wandering around in the vast desert. It was obvious that he was injured; she could tell by the way he was limping. The young woman contemplated whether she should alert the other Gerudo, or to leave him there. Deciding that the latter was the easiest option, she decided to just sit and keep an eye out for any abnormal changes in his behaviour.

A few minutes later, she heard a rattling at the gate she was supposed to be guarding. Glancing down, she saw the man from before, banging at the gate, and groaning. She climbed down the ladders from her post, and frowned.

The man looked awful. He had purple, bruised skin, peeling off in some places, revealing old, yellowed bone, and burnt flesh. He was covered in sand, getting stuck in wet clumps on the fleshy muscle on his body. Maggots squirmed and wriggled around the open wounds on his body, gnawing away at the decaying tissue. The smell of rotten flesh filled Reana's nose, and she had to hold her breath to stop herself from vomiting. She glared at him, dead in the eyes, and shouted,

"I don't know why you are here, or where you have come from, but if you want help, then fucking ask for it before you start rattling the gates like some madman!"

This only made him smash against the gates even more. Getting more agitated, she shouted over to one of her fellow Gerudo

"Hey, Neeva, come and help me with this guy, he won't stop banging on the gate!"

Neeva jogged over, and put her hands on her hips, leaning forward, and stared at him.

"Look, you heard my friend here; we can help you if you ask for it." She pointed a finger at him, jabbing him in the stomach, gently, "But you're just being completely rude. Are you even listening! Do you want me to get someone of a higher rank to come tell you, or are you going to stop-"

She was cut off; when she felt the man's teeth, what little he had of them, sink into the soft, tanned skin on her hand. The two women heard the sickening crack of Neeva's bones being crushed, and ripped from her arm, leaving a bloody stump, of where her left hand used to be.

She screamed then, a blood curdling scream, as she sunk to the floor, nursing the mangled wrist.

Reana, in too much shock to move, could do nothing but watch, as the jaws of the man stretched to an abnormal size, tearing the skin around them, and swallowed the hand, whole, crunching the bones between his sharp, twisted teeth. The rest of the Gerudo, who were wandering around the outside of the village, were now surrounding the poor woman, who was soon taken to the medical ward in one of the buildings. Some of the other Gerudo had stayed behind, along with Reana, and waited for someone to return with Nabooru.

Soon enough, they arrived, Nabooru in tow, who was appalled by what happened. She walked straight up to the man, and stabbed him in the head with her knife, which she kept in her pocket for emergencies, like this.

"I don't want my Gerudo being threatened like that. I would rather kill you than take my chances with letting you in here."

And with that, she walked off, with the rest of the Gerudo following her.

All except Reana.

She had her gaze fixated on the desert in front of her. Her eyes were huge with fright, and she was shaking, for in front of her, behind the gate, were thousands of men, women and children, all slowly limping towards the gate...

She had to tell the others.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_Flames surrounded Link and Ganon. The Master Sword was wedged into the earth, next to Princess Zelda, who was anxiously watching the two. Link was waiting for him to attack, before running behind him, and shooting some Light Arrows at his bright tail. After Link repeated this a few times, Ganon soon grew tired, and collapsed on the ground, using one of his swords for support. _

"_Link! The Master Sword is here! Hurry up!"_

_Nodding, he ran over, and pulled it out of its place in the ground. Just as he ran back to finish him off, Ganon immediately got up, and charged at him again, he was faster this time, and Link struggled to get to his back, to attack his tail. When he managed to do this a few times, though, Ganon couldn't fight any longer, and fell to the ground, dropping his swords, and shouting with anger, before he couldn't shout any more._

_He had done it. The Hero of Time had managed to save Hyrule from imminent danger. He was so tired, he could barely walk back to Princess Zelda, and his breaths were short and ragged. She was talking to him about something, but he was too exhausted to comprehend the jumble of words which escaped her lips. Suddenly, the ground seemed much closer than it was a few seconds ago, and all he could hear, were the voices of Navi and Zelda, ringing in his ears, as he landed on the floor with a thud._

"Link! Hey Link, wake up!" that didn't sound to me like Princess Zelda or Navi.

"Come on, lazybones! Get up! You would sleep forever if I let you!"

Groggily, I half-opened my eyes, seeing a blurred figure standing over me.

"Finally! Good morning, Link! Or should I say good afternoon now?" the voice teased.

Groaning, I sat up, and rubbed my eyes, before looking over at the mysterious figure next to me. My vision cleared, and I saw the petite figure of Saria, my Kokiri friend. The young girl looked at me curiously.

"Are you okay? You look really ill today." She asked.

Cautiously, I walked over to the mirror in my room, and realised she was right. I looked like I had been to Hell and back. My Kokiri outfit was stained with dirt, and some parts had been torn, or burnt off in patches. There was dried blood in places, some of which was not my own. My face was covered in cuts and bruises, and my hair was caked in mud. Deep, black circles surrounded my eyes, looking like I hadn't slept in days. That was how I felt, too.

Well, I had just saved all of Hyrule in only a few days. It was only to be expected that I would look this bad. I assumed Princess Zelda would have cleaned me up before I was sent back in time, though.

"H-how long have I been asleep?" my voice was croaky and hoarse.

"Uh, quite a while, I think. I've only came to check in on you about an hour ago, and I've only just been able to get you up."

I suddenly remembered something.

"Navi! Is Navi here?" I asked quickly.

"Huh? Who's that? I've never heard you mention that name before..."

I frowned, "Of course you have! You were one of the first people to find out I finally got a fairy! You used to tease me about not having one, because the rest of the Kokiri all had their own, including you! Why can't you remember her?"

"Link, what are you talking about? You've never had a fairy."

Her words shocked me.

"But, but...I did have a fairy...she woke me up one day...and told me I had to see the Great D-Deku tree..." I mumbled, mostly to myself.

"Why don't we just go ask him then? Although I'm sure you've dreamt about this fairy..."

Ignoring the last thing she said, I stared at her. She can't be serious? She knew he was dead.

"W-What? Saria, the Great Deku Tree is...gone...he had a curse put on him by Ganond-"

It all came flowing back to me. Ganondorf was dead. Nobody knew of anything that had happened before all this. It was just like before, except this time, there was no Navi. Or Ganondorf.

"Link, I just saw the Great Deku Tree. He's not 'gone'. Are you sure you're okay?" she inquired, frowning.

"Oh! Yeah, I'm fine, Saria, really! I must have dreamt about all this! Just forget I said anything!" Trying to change the subject, I added, "Hey, why don't we go find that place, you know, in the Lost Woods? I know you like going there."

"Ah, okay," she smiled, "I wanted you to hear my new song, anyway. And I haven't been able to find a few of the other Kokiri; we could look for them in there."

As we walked outside, Saria gestured to my outfit.

"How come you're so dirty, anyway? And is that b-blood? Link, what have you done?"

"I, uh, was training a lot yesterday; I must've slipped over a few times. And scraped myself." I was a terrible liar.

"Really? And just what were you training for?" She raised an eyebrow.

I can't tell her! Who knows what could happen if she found out what happened before all this?! I need to think of an excuse.

"I was, uh, training for a...a race! Yeah, I've decided I wanna have a race with you! I've been training for a while now, um, race you to the Lost Woods!" I charged off.

I didn't say I needed to think of a good excuse.

When I entered the woods, I slowed down, and sat on a nearby log, waiting for Saria to get here. I noticed some of my wounds had reopened slightly, and little beads of blood were seeping through my tunic. Ignoring them, I got up from the log, and quickly decided to go the opposite way that we usually go, to get away from her for a while. I had soon run into a small clearing, with two tree trunks, one smaller than the other. On the tallest one, I saw a young child, no older than myself, dancing on the thick trunk. He had some sort of flute in his hand, and was playing a tune. This was the tune Saria plays, and was probably going to show me today! I panicked, thinking that she would come this way, and ran further into the woods, going through a tunnel, made from a huge tree, that had been hollowed out.

I suddenly heard a faint voice, calling out my name. Crap, it was Saria, and I heard her talking to the kid. He's probably told her where I was! I ran as fast as I could, and hid inside some bushes. I admit I'm not good at thinking on the spot, and I just do the first thing that comes to mind. Anyway, I crouched down low, so you could just see the top of my green hat sticking out. See? Camouflage.

"Link, where are you? Idiot, it's not safe to run off in the woods!" Saria's voice shouted.

Of course it was safe, I saved Hyrule from danger, right?

Well, now I wished I hadn't.

As I was sat there, for how long I don't remember, I heard a scream. It was obvious that it had come from Saria, I had to help her!

I scrambled out of the bushes, and climbed up to where I saw that kid, when I froze. Could Saria be doing this to trick me? As if on cue, she shouted again.

"Link, please! Help me!"

That was all the conformation I needed. I sprinted off to where I could hear the voice coming from, almost like a twisted version of when I had to find her in here last time. Her screams were closer now, whatever was attacking her, must be pretty dangerous. As I reached the clearing with the maze in, I saw a few drops of blood, leading to the maze. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that some of the drops were dried up, and older, while some were still fresh, like it had only been left here a few seconds ago.

As I ran through the maze, I realised something.

The screams had stopped.

Was I too late?

I ran faster now, getting to the end of the maze, with the blood from my wounds now leaking through my tunic, staining the once grassy green outfit, a dirty shade of red. As I climbed up the steps, I was met with a terrible sight.

About four or five of the Kokiri children were surrounding Saria, who had covered her mouth to stop herself from shouting. She had climbed up into a tree, and was sat on one of the branches, her legs were brought up to her chest, and she had her eyes squeezed shut, blocking out the faces of our friends. Somehow, the tree had managed to set on fire, and it was slowly creeping up to where she was sat.

I gasped, and that slight noise directed the children's attention onto me. That was when I saw their faces.

They were not the Kokiri children I once knew.

They were monsters.

They then started to shuffle towards me. I realised I had to find a way to get Saria, without also getting stuck in the tree. I couldn't do this without a weapon.

Then, an idea struck me.

I ran back to the maze, as fast as I could, climbing up the ladder, and running over the top of it, jumping over all the gaps. I then dropped down to the floor again, and ran back into the woods.

After turning the multiple corners, as I knew this place like the back of my hand, I was back into the small village that I grew up in. Nobody had heard the commotion, but they had realised some of them had gone missing, as they were asking me if I knew of their whereabouts. I decided to tell them that I hadn't seen them, making it easier than telling them where they actually where, and what had happened to them. When I reached my destination, a small opening I could crawl through, I scurried through it, and, avoiding the boulder that was circling the path, I saw a large chest at the end of the path. This was what I was looking for!

I opened it, and found it was empty.

Someone has taken it.

The Kokiri Sword.

In its place, was a strange looking mask. It was purple and red, with an intricate design, shaped like a heart, with spikes around the sides, and it had bulging yellow eyes, which were boring into my soul.

Leaving the stupid mask there, I growled in frustration, and had to resort to getting Deku nuts, and sticks. Once I thought I had enough, I ran all the way back to where Saria and the other Kokiri were.

Let the battle commence.

Firstly, I threw Deku nuts at them, stunning them, so they couldn't attack, then I ran to where the fire was, it had spread now, and I had to act fast if I wanted Saria to get out alive. So I got out one of the sticks, and set it on fire. Holding it at arm's length, like a sword, I started swinging at the unfortunate children, who soon caught on fire, and started screaming and thrashing around, trying to escape the flames that were soon burning their flesh off. Soon, all that was left was a pile of charred bones.

Not much of a battle.

I turned around, to see the tree was almost completely shrouded in fire. I shouted to Saria, who looked at me, fear in her tear stained eyes.

"Come on, quickly, before you burn to death!" I ran underneath the tree, being careful not to get too close to the fire, "Here, I'll catch you!"

She stood up, and I had my arms outstretched, ready to catch her. She closed her eyes, and jumped down.

I had just caught her in time, as the flames had engulfed the exact spot where she was sitting, only seconds ago.

"You...you killed them...Link...our friends..." she was obviously too traumatised too comprehend what had happened to them.

"Saria, you saw them, I had to do it. They were going to kill you!"

"I'd rather have them kill me, than have to see my friends die..." she muttered.

"Oh, but you would have let me watch you die. I saw them; they were going to tear you apart. Did they hurt you?"

"N-No, well, apart from a few scratches on my back, but apart from that, I'm fine." She tried to smile, but it faltered, and silent tears fell from her face.

"Come on, we have to tell the others, and alert the Great Deku tree." I grabbed her hand, and gave it a light squeeze.

As we walked away, I thought about what was happening.

Is this happening all over Hyrule?

What were we going to do?

Is this because Ganondorf's dead?

Back to where the bones were, they were slowly starting to rearrange themselves, into how the Kokiri children originally looked.

Except now, they were just bones.

**AN:**** Here's the first chapter, hope you enjoy it. Sorry if it's too long. Or short. Or whatever.**


End file.
